<Where are "Skip's Photos"?>"Takin' Twenty" with the Virginian Brethren by Skip Salmon

[NW Mailing List]

Jerry P.,
The photos are on the yahoo site virginianrailwayenthusiasts. You have to go to yahoo and open the virginianrailwayenthusiasts site and give a little information including a password to join and when the site opens to its home page, click on photos and you will find "Skip;s Photos" as well a a lot more VGN.
Skip Salmon
---- NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:

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Help me, please.
I’ve seen many references to Skip Salmon’s "Skip's Photos" that is described as “on this site ,” but I’ve never been able to find it. I presume “this site” is nwhs.org. Or is it something different? Hint please? ...a URL would do the trick. Regards,Jerry P. From: NW Mailing ListSent: Thursday, May 10, 2012 8:04 AMTo: NW Mailing ListSubject: "Takin' Twenty" with the Virginian Brethren by Skip Salmon 
Last night I had the pleasure of "Takin' Twenty" with eight of the Brethren and Friends of the Virginian Railway. I told them about my talking to the Railroad Industrial Modelers, last Friday at Wasena Park about the Virginian Railway. This group, from all over the USA, had their Convention at Hotel Roanoke. They visited Roanoke Shops, Freight Car America and the NS Virginia Division (Dispatch Center) before the Bar-B-Q lunch. They were very interested in the VGN, asking many questions about our Fallen Flag. They were impressed with the regenerative action of dynamic braking putting power back into the line that the VGN used. When I told them about the New River being used as resistance for regular dynamic braking for the electrics, one man asked "What did this do to the fish?" I had to explain that back then, the environment was not considered as it is now. I gave a VGN RWY Safety First pin to a man from California who traveled the farthest to hear my talk. Also several from the group get this report, and were able to put my face with this stuff!

For Show and Tell, I took a VGN RWY adz donated by Eddie Baldwin who read about our VGN Station Restoration in recent news articles. The adz belonged to his grandfather, C. S. Baldwin, who worked for N&W in Roanoke Shops. This adz shows much wear and the Brethren suspect that back in the early days, the VGN probably purchased cross ties at every saw mill from Deepwater to Sewells Point and needed adzes when the rails were installed. I also showed "Roscoe" the yellow jacket, that I discovered Monday in my bedroom window. "Roscoe" woke me up, and at first I thought my neighbor had bought a new scooter and could not get it started. My bride Judi Raided him. I have placed a photo of "Roscoe" vs a VGN RWY yellow jacket on this site under "Skip's Photos".

I brought the 1955 video mentioned last week, that Gordon Hamilton found, and showed it to the Brethren. Landon Gregory brought his lap top computer and we watched VGN trains at Norfolk, Suffolk, Altavista, Roanoke and other locations. They were amazed as the VGN passenger train followed closely behind the coal train. Raymond East, who was working as a fireman on a yard engine in 1955, admitted that "the fellow throwing coal into the firebox on the engine in the video looked a lot like him"! Also shown was the Summer 2012 "Classic Trains", highlighting the EMD E-units and a great article "Of Hoops and Markers" about train orders similar to VGN's operations. Also passed around was a photo that my son Scott gave me of a 1920's view of the Appalachian Power generating plant near the VGN Complex with the Roanoke Railway & Electric Company street car line shown. Another photo provoked the Brethren in such a manner that I will not share the comments made here. It is the one showing a Lionel version of a "VGN heritage GE locomotive" with blue trucks and flames. We all agreed that the best four letter word to describe this toy is JOKE!. I was also able to show the latest NS Heritage unit, EMD SD70ACe #1065 Savannah and Atlanta.

The Jewel from the Past is from January 19, 2006: "While talking about VGN carman L. C. Hall, Raymond East remembered that in the old days of friction bearings, the carpecks would be very greasy from working with journal box oil and 'waste' with their bare hands. Seems that L C. was known for wearing gloves that were always cleaner than his hands. Once someone asked him to come to the yard office when he 'took twenty, after washing up'. East said Hall told them he couldn't, because 'he never washed up to take twenty, just ate with his gloves ON'".

At last Friday's talk to the Railroad Industrial Modelers, I pointed out to the ladies and gentlemen the Roanoke River flowing beside the old Virginian line. This section was "moved over" in order to extent the VGN Yard for longer coal trains, after the merger. I mentioned that a fisherman had just disappeared into the trees beside this trout stream that flows through our fair city. One fellow from Colorado seemed especially interested. I told him about my nephew Jake catching a large fish last week, west of this site. I described Jake's trout with outstretched arms and started bringing my hands closer together when I said "A photo of the fish weighed six pounds!".

Time to pull the pin on this one!

Departing Now from V248,

Skip Salmon

CDIX

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SKIP SALMON
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